Sri Lanka** expects to sign free agreements** with China, India, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Malaysia by the end of the year. This was reported by the country's Daily Mirror, citing a statement by Chief Ali Sabri at a briefing. The statement comes just days after Sri Lanka signed a free trade agreement with Thailand on Feb. 3. It is reported that the document was signed during the visit of Thai Prime Minister Saitha Thazin to Colombo. Professor Qiu Yonghui, chief expert of the Center for Chinese South Asian Studies at Sichuan University, pointed out in an interview with the Russian news agency Sputnik that the initiative put forward by Sri Lanka is in line with China's interests in the South Asian region. "Sri Lanka is one of the important nodes of the Maritime Silk Road due to its special geographical location and traditional friendly relations with China," she said. In recent years, Sri Lanka declared national bankruptcy due to the combination of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and domestic policy failures, and the crisis is also the worst economic crisis since its independence. Sri Lanka's current priority is to improve people's livelihood and boost the economy, on the one hand, it urgently needs the revitalization of domestic industries and the adjustment of economic structure, and on the other hand, it needs to expand international cooperation, a large amount of foreign investment, and an active international **. Therefore, Sri Lanka's commitment to signing free agreements with China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam is Sri Lanka's choice, and it will also become one of the important contents of economic and trade cooperation between China and Sri Lanka under the new situation. Professor Qiu said that the Freedom Agreement will bring the multilateral cooperation between China and Sri Lanka to a new level. "China believes that a free trade agreement to promote economic reform is a good policy for Sri Lanka," she said. China has already invested heavily in Sri Lanka, and China is willing to see a Sri Lanka that no longer has a negative economic crisis, so that various cooperation projects can continue to be promoted. Sri Lanka's stepping up of liberal agreements with a number of countries is an important part of Sri Lanka's economic restructuring and the establishment of a stable national economy. Speaking at the 2023 Sri Lanka Economic Summit after nearly a year of post-pandemic recovery, Sri Lanka** Ranier Wickremesinghe declared the need for a thorough economic restructuring to ensure the sustainability of the country's economy, carry out internal reforms and improve competitiveness, instead of being a 'beggar's country'. In the context of the increasingly fierce game of 'Indo-Pacific strategy', some countries inside and outside the region have stepped up their involvement in Sri Lanka's affairs, focusing on undermining China's interests and image in Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka's space to maintain its balanced foreign policy is shrinking. Recently, under a series of diplomatic maneuvers by China, China-Sri Lanka relations have returned to the right track, and Sri Lanka has publicly made overtures to China at the bilateral, regional and international levels, and in a joint statement with China in October 2023, it "reaffirmed its willingness to actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China". Therefore, it is an important opportunity for China to reshape its strategic interests in Sri Lanka, and to take the opportunity of freedom to promote 'China-Sri Lanka cooperation' is not only the development needs of China and Sri Lanka, but also conducive to China's strategic interests. "Sri Lanka should strike a balance between high economic, political, and commercial risks and the advantages of freedom** in order to sign agreements with its partners. Expert Qiu Yonghui noted the risks and challenges of development cooperation with Sri Lanka. "China has noticed that Sri Lanka's economic problems are more serious," she said. First, although the Sri Lankan economy has shown initial signs of stabilization, the prospects for a comprehensive economic recovery are still uncertain. It will take a long time to ease the current debt burden. Second, since the end of the civil war in 2009, the political situation in Sri Lanka has been unstable. Political turmoil not only affects the social order and development environment, but also brings many uncertainties to investors. Third, the business environment is not good, and the investment risk is high. 100% of foreign investment is allowed into commercial, industrial and industrial activities, and a large number of industries are strictly regulated, including the cultivation and primary processing of tea, rubber and leaves, cocoa, rice, sugar and spices, tourism services, etc. But on the other hand, Sri Lanka's characteristic industries are prominent and its comparative advantages are obvious. The tea industry, represented by Ceylon black tea, and the gemstone industry, represented by sapphire, have high international popularity and brand value. Sri Lanka also has excellent tourism and fishery resources, and is also an important foreign exchange for the country**. Sri Lanka is also one of the world's leading producers of natural rubber. What is particularly important is that Sri Lanka's logistics location is superior, close to the main international routes of Asia and Europe, and it is a key node of international and shipping, and has unique advantages in cargo transshipment, ship transit and replenishment. Professor Qiu Yonghui said that China is confident that it can make a great contribution to the achievement of the two major economic goals of Sri Lanka's Vision 2025. "The economic objectives of the vision are, firstly, to establish Sri Lanka as an upper-middle-income country and the centre of the Indian Ocean, with a knowledge-based, highly competitive social market economy; The second is to build Sri Lanka into an export-oriented economic hub in the Indian Ocean region through the signing of the Freedom Agreement. From China's point of view, Sri Lanka's industrial and agricultural industrial chain is short, and its export products are mainly in the form of assembled products and primary raw materials. The service industry is mainly concentrated in tourism-related fields such as hotels, restaurants, and retail, and the development of high value-added industries such as finance and information technology lags behind. China has a strong industrial structure and a wide range of areas of possible cooperation with Sri Lanka. In addition to helping Sri Lanka promote the construction of aviation, railways, ports, highways, bridges, rail transit and other infrastructure, in terms of ?#", China hopes that Sri Lanka's single industrial structure and lack of diversified development will be broken through.
Taking into account the development needs of China and Sri Lanka and the foundation of cooperation in the early stage, it is believed that under the framework of the new free trade agreement, China and Sri Lanka are expected to promote practical cooperation in the fields of agricultural development, cultural tourism, education and health, free trade port construction, new energy and digital economy in an orderly manner. ”
It is clear that duty-free** could significantly increase the share of Sri Lankan products in the Chinese market and at the same time replenish Sri Lanka's treasury in the context of the monetary financial crisis. At the same time, Sri Lanka is sending a clear signal that it plans to continue its relationship and investment cooperation with China, despite warnings from U.S. and international creditors about the possibility of falling into China's debt trap and the loss of economic sovereignty.